Chakotay's Scorpion tale

[xvicente]

CHAKOTAY: There's a story I heard as a child, a parable, and I never forgot it. A scorpion was walking along the bank of a river, wondering how to get to the other side Suddenly he saw a fox. He asked the fox to take him on his back across the river. The fox said no, if I do that you'll sting me, and I'll drown. The scorpion assured him, if I did that, we'd both drown. So the fox thought about it and finally agreed. So the scorpion climbed up on his back, and the fox began to swim. But halfway across the river, the scorpion stung him. As the poison filled his veins, the fox turned to the scorpion and said why did you do that? Now you'll drown too. I couldn't help it, said the scorpion. It's my nature.

Anyone heard that fable before watching it in "Scorpion" (the episode)? I have but it was a turtle instead of a fox.

 

[Captain Kathryn]

That's a classic story and actually was an old Native American parable, apparently.

Also it was used in the movie Skin Deep from 1989.

 

[Gov Kodos]

It's also one of Aesop's fables, his had a scorpion and frog. The tale goes a ways back.

 

[R. Star]

I thought it was a frog too.

 

[Robert Comsol]

I heard that one a long time ago but not in a manner suggesting it had been a Native American fable or involved a fox.

Apparently, it goes way back but probably did originate in the Middle East, as the turtle and the scorpion.

Bob

 

[Guy Gardener]

Aesop's Fables or the Aesopica is a collection of fables credited to Aesop, a slave and story-teller believed to have lived in ancient Greece between 620 and 560 BCE

Was this supposed to be like Chekoff saying that Russia invented everything?

 

[teya]

Well, see, you take an old fable from the Mediterranean region, change the frog to a fox and that makes it Native American.

Well, at least on Voyager, it does.

The Scorpion & the Frog also featured in "The Crying Game."

 

[TEACAKE'S PLEATHER DOME]

Whenever characters start telling an aesop type fable to explain military strategy it's embarrassing. Unless they are talking to a 5 year old which they never are.

 

[Praetor]

At least no gazelles were involved.

 

[TEACAKE'S PLEATHER DOME]

And that gazelle is now our personal Trek fable, lucky us.

 

[Praetor]

The gazelle was Trip.

#mindblown

 

[Guy Gardener]

MIndtrip.

 

[Timewalker]

CHAKOTAY: There's a story I heard as a child, a parable, and I never forgot it. A scorpion was walking along the bank of a river, wondering how to get to the other side Suddenly he saw a fox. He asked the fox to take him on his back across the river. The fox said no, if I do that you'll sting me, and I'll drown. The scorpion assured him, if I did that, we'd both drown. So the fox thought about it and finally agreed. So the scorpion climbed up on his back, and the fox began to swim. But halfway across the river, the scorpion stung him. As the poison filled his veins, the fox turned to the scorpion and said why did you do that? Now you'll drown too. I couldn't help it, said the scorpion. It's my nature.

Anyone heard that fable before watching it in "Scorpion" (the episode)? I have but it was a turtle instead of a fox.

There was an episode of Northern Exposure in which the character of Shelly relates the fable by singing it. The animals were a turtle and a snake.

 

[R. Star]

Wouldn't a turtle's shell keep it safe from the scorpion on it's back anyways?

 

[Guy Gardener]

Hmmm?

Maybe the Scorpion was riding inside the shell?

Now no one's deluded and deranged enough to think that it was Seven who was The Scorpion right?

Janeway was.

She screwed over the Borg, and before they could fully express a tanty, she ended the Borg threat on her ship, as is her nature.

 

[Timewalker]

Wouldn't a turtle's shell keep it safe from the scorpion on it's back anyways?

I'm pretty sure that turtles can't swim if all their extremities are inside the shell, and the animal in Northern Exposure was a snake, not a scorpion.

I might be mistaken about the turtle, but it was a two-syllable animal capable of swimming across a river, and native to Alaska. I definitely remember the snake part.

 

[TEACAKE'S PLEATHER DOME]

I like the idea of the animal being a fox because then it's about an animal with clever sneaky attributes coming undone.

 

[Timewalker]

Well, it was a snake in Northern Exposure. I remember that because the character was singing, not talking. The number of syllables and the rhyme were important.

 

[TEACAKE'S PLEATHER DOME]

Northern Exposure is one atmospheric blur to me now, with annoying bits.

 

[Guy Gardener]

You're All participating in the longest game of Greek Whispers ever.